affordability
$75k and a Dead Bird
The origins of California’s inverse condemnation doctrine and how it increases electricity rates.
Last week, the California Earthquake Authority (“CEA”) released a major new report titled Enhancing California’s Resiliency to Natural Catastrophes . The legislatively-mandated report, which I wrote about earlier, provides recommendations to address the unsustainable financial losses faced by electric utilities, insurance companies, and the public, as climate change-driven wildfires cause catastrophic damage across the state. …
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CONTINUE READINGDemocratic Governors and the A-word
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
The governors and legislative leaders of several blue states on the East Coast are obsessed with the A-word: affordability. So much so that several of them are looking to pull money away from state programs that boost renewable energy and energy efficiency, as a shortcut to try to lower electricity costs. In Maryland, Rhode Island, …
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CONTINUE READINGAffordability Is Everywhere
How affordability concerns are informing recent developments in electricity, clean energy, and housing policy.
Affordability concerns are increasingly top-of-mind for advocates, academics, and public officials with regard to electricity generation and pricing, the transition away from fossil fuel extraction, and affordable housing. Public support for improving the grid, transitioning to a clean energy economy, and expanding the supply of housing depends on whether policymakers can ensure that the costs …
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CONTINUE READINGRecapping “Our Climate Future”: A California Gubernatorial Candidate Forum
How four top candidates plan to tackle affordability, environmental justice, and clean energy and continue California’s leadership
Californians will elect a new governor in November. The race presents state voters with a wider variety of potential outcomes for climate policy–from increased ambition to continuity to changed priorities–than any election since 2010. To help voters understand where the candidates stand on our most pressing environmental challenges, the Center for Law, Energy, and the …
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CONTINUE READINGAnother White House Power Grab: PJM
Why emergency power auctions for the AI overlords will do little to reduce electricity prices.
Fresh on the heels of the White House takeover of Venezuela and its “uninvestable” oil sector, President Trump, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and the rest of the National Energy Dominance Council have turned their sights on the largest wholesale electricity market in the United States – PJM. Their concern is high prices, which continue to …
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CONTINUE READINGIt’s Not the Generation
Ivanpah Solar Energy Generating Project, April 29, 2013, Wikimedia Commons
Abandoning low cost renewable energy generation is not the solution to electricity affordability
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board should not be your first stop for unbiased opinion on the state of energy policy in California. Nevertheless, I could not stop myself from reading Wednesday’s Op-Ed, California’s Stranded Solar Assets, about the ongoing saga of the Ivanpah solar thermal project, a 386 MW power plant near the California/Nevada …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Change is Coming for Your Coffee
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
My drug habit is becoming more expensive thanks to the dangerous duo of climate change and Donald Trump. The cost of coffee keeps going up. I saw firsthand why this is happening back in May on an eye-opening trip to Acre, Brazil, where I toured a couple of farms in the Amazon. One was a …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Takes a Stab at Climate and Energy Costs
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
It’s remarkable that with everything else that’s raging, climate and energy bills still managed to dominate the legislative session that just wrapped in Sacramento. After all, the reason lawmakers were still at work this past Saturday — the day after the legislative session was supposed to end — was that negotiations on climate bills pushed …
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